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Mary S. Thelen Library

COUN 560: Social and Cultural Diversity

This is the libguide for the counseling course, COUN 560 (Social and Cultural Diversity).

This page contains valuable library tools and tips that can assist you in your academic needs. 

When beginning to choose a paper or research topic, it could be helpful to do the following things:

  • Brainstorming helps you to think about topics you are interested in, what you are passionate about, what you would like to know more about, or are relevant to the class in which your assignment is in. This can help you come up with initial ideas. 
  • Researching the general background of your topic can help you identify what has already been done on your topic, and how much research is there on it as well. Generally, in research, you want to focus on something new, but too little or too much research can be problematic for your assignment. 
  • Focusing or expanding your topic might be necessary to realign your idea with the scope of your project. If your topic is too broad or too narrow that may make your project harder to accomplish. 
  • Making a list of keywords such as synonyms, broader and narrower terms, and different ways to describe your topic are important for searching later. It can also help you adjust your topic.
  • Writing your topic as a focused research question is important and will be the backbone of your initial searches. It will also be the basis of your thesis statement.

The library catalog is a great place to begin doing research or for seeing what research is available on a topic. You can search the catalog below. 

The following are general tips and tricks for running effective library searches for your assignments. 

  • From your topic question, identify the main concepts or key terms, and break them down into concepts. Synonyms, or terms that are similar in meaning, should also be noted. For example, if you are examining how couples cope with stress as a result of a health crisis, you would break this down into couples (or dyads) and coping and stress and health.
  • Using a thesaurus can be helpful for identifying the terms under which information is organized. Boolean venn diagram
  • Connect the terms with Boolean logic. Terms like AND, OR, and NOT can be used to expand or limit one's search. 

Boolean Terms and Symbols:

  • Use AND if you want to search for concept A and concept B together.  Use OR if you want to search for two terms together as well as separately. Use NOT if you want to search for something to the exclusion of something else. 
  • Use the truncation symbol * if you want to search for variations on the ends of words (such as atheist or atheism). Use the ? for more than one letter variation in the middle of the word, and the # for just one letter. To help you remember, there is a question about how many letters to use for more than one, so the question mark is used. 
  • Use parentheses ( ) to search more concisely. 

Note that these only work for a search in the catalog. Other databases have a different system. With the catalog, an advanced search is available for you to use some of these features automatically. 

After you create your initial search, you can filter your search results, or expand them, based on certain things such as year, whether Divine Mercy University has access to it, format, etc. These can be applied using the options on the left.

The following are tips and tricks on finding materials through the library: 

  • Do not reject sources because they are in different formats. The library has quality resources in a variety of source types. 

  • There are several ways of finding sources on your topic:

    • Conducting a search using key words and Boolean terms

    • Using the citation network (identifying who cited what sources and what sources is cited by them). 

    • Searching a general academic database. 

  • Internet sources can be useful but they are not necessarily curated or as quality as resources you would find through the library.

It is important to evaluate the quality of your resources because basing judgments, decisions, and other information on non-quality information can be problematic. One easy-to-remember method that can help you to evaluate the quality of information is the RADAR framework.

The acronym RADAR stands for:

R – Rationale

Because information is constructed with a purpose, it is important to determine why information is created or presented. Sometimes, the information is biased, or is inaccurate but presented in such a way as to deceive. Some information, on the other hand, is objective without any partiality or bias. Therefore, the rationale or reason behind why the information is presented or created is important to evaluate.

A – Authority

Authority is important to determine because some resources are put forth by people who know little about the subject. Therefore, they do not have the authority to speak on the subject as much as someone who knows a lot about the subject, has put forth a lot of research on it, or is in a position to speak authoritatively about it. Number and type of awards, educational background, and other things written by the author are also important to consider.

D – Date

Because information can be made quickly obsolete with new information, date of the information is important to consider. However, date may be less important if the information utilized is not facts, or a historical overview on a topic.

A – Accuracy

It is important to check for accuracy with the information because decisions, clients, and reputations depend on how accurate the information is. If untruths or errors are present, negative consequences may result.

R – Relevance

Finally, it is important to ensure you are using relevant information to support your claims, therapy, or research.  Research or therapy that is not supported by strong, pertinent information cannot be used to make sound judgments or decisions or may have negative consequences.